Last night I went to the Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros concert on Governors Island. I first heard about Ed Sharpe 6 months ago from "The Hipstercrit", a blogger who talks all things hip, emo, and Jeff Goldbloom. She posted this incredible video of the band performing their now hit song "Home" and the caption read "They're not mentally challenged, they're just really into it." Besides being completely accurate and giving me a huge laugh, the song was...well, catchy, and pretty damn good at that. I bought the album and for the past couple of months have been listening to it on repeat, so you could imagine my excitement to finally see them live.
I have never been to a concert at Governors Island before and from the moment we arrived, we knew it was the perfect venue for a fun folksy band. The band got off to a rough start as they had some sound issues as well as an indescribable "we're going to take a break" after only 3 songs, but they made up for it in the end. The concert was filled with energy as everyone in the audience danced with the strangers next to them, chanted lyrics, and drank $14 beers.
As the show ended and all of the know-able songs had been played, I debated on leaving before the encore, but luckily I was talked into staying. The band continued to play a few upbeat songs and then I noticed that the lead singer, Alex (not Edward Sharpe, as you may have presumed), suddenly disappeared. It wasn't until the entire crowd seemed to push towards the right that I realized he had actually come into the audience. Alex slowly moved through the massive amounts of people and said, "I feel like sitting. In fact, I think we all should sit down. Will you all sit with me?" So sit we did, 1000's of people on each others laps with arms, legs and various body parts entangled. The funny thing was nobody seemed to care, in fact, everyone loved it. The prime example being that when we were told to clap, someone actually offered me their hand, because I could not find my other one. We sat there for five whole minutes as Alex serenaded the crowd and every single person relaxed, laid back and soaked in the moment. When the song ended people began to stand, lift one another up and talk about what we all just witnessed. I've never seen anything like it in my life, not in New York, not anywhere.
Appropriately so, the show ended with a huge dance party as people huddled in "tie dance" style circles and they cheered when each took center stage. The crowd was having so much fun that they barely even noticed that some of the band members were just chilling on the stage watching us. The dance party eventually died down and we boarded the ferry and watched as Governors Island disappeared behind us. It was over, and all I kept thinking was- did that really just happen?
"They're not mentally challenged, they're just really into it." - The Hipstercrit
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